Sequoia Capital this week held a sobering wake for the second Internet boom. Call it Economics 101 on Recession 2.0. The premier venture capital firm, which has backed such companies as Apple, Cisco and YouTube, invited about 100 executives from its portfolio companies to give them an overview of what the global economic crisis means for Silicon Valley and their start-up dreams. "We were all talking outside before it got started and one of the CEOs said, 'Gee, I wonder what they are going to talk about at the meeting today?' So we peeked in and there was a tombstone that said 'RIP: Good Times' on it," said one executive who asked not to be named because the meeting was confidential. The main message: Cinch your belts for a much longer and deeper recession than most people think. "They gave us a macroeconomic overview of what they see happening and why they don't think this is just some volatility," the executive said. Sequoia partner Michael Moritz, who led the firm's early investments in the likes of Google and Yahoo, gave an introduction at the meeting. Earlier this week, Moritz made clear his feelings about how sharp the retrenchment would be for Silicon Valley start-ups that sprang up during the boom. Many will end up "spattered on windshields and radiator grills and be forgotten," he told the Financial Times. Sequoia declined to comment about the Tuesday meeting, which was first reported by technology blog GigaOm. It was not ...
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